The Mushroom Princess
by Moonlit Waters
Summary: I sing of Toadstool, loveliest of maids, and Mario, bravest plumber e’er known. COMPLETE.
1. Canto 1

The Mushroom Princess

I sing of Toadstool, loveliest of maids, and Mario, bravest plumber e'er known.

Canto I

A fair princess in far off kingdom lives  
Beauty exceeded only by her pow'r;  
Her magic hand her nation safety gives  
Her wise, clear voice doth rule from iv'ry tow'r.

Now trag'dy strikes, the maid is stol'n away  
By turtles fierce, who lust for power cruel.  
They charge the land, like dark eclipse of day  
And snatch the princess for their evil rule.

Their leader, Bowser, laughs and long and hard.  
His reptile grips descends upon the land.  
All creatures wilt, as though from poison shard.  
The ground itself doth shake beneath his hand.

Now far away in a long distant world  
Beyond the pipes that pierce th'ethereal veil  
In a city called Brooklyn there lay curled  
Upon two beds, a pair of brothers well

Exhausted from their daily labors great.  
Luigi young and Mario elder.  
They'd served the city for twelve hours late  
Patching up leaks and clearing clogs of fur.

The eldest now has a familiar dream  
Of a lady in pink like tender rose.  
Her eyes outshine the sunlight with their gleam  
She reaches out her hand, and Mario knows

Tis peril that she fears and only he  
May mend what's broken and restore therein  
The treasures shattered by malicious glee  
So mushrooms and flowers may thrive again.

"Luigi," he says, upon wakening,  
"This thing that I've seen is a work of magic.  
The pipe she led me to inside my dream  
Will take us to her fallen realm tragic."

And so they set out to the place foretold  
A secret path hidden beneath the ground.  
The eerie green of the pipe them enfold  
The magic transports them without a sound.


	2. Canto 2

Canto II

The bright sapphire of the morning sky  
Spreads out endless above the grassy plain.  
The Mushroom Kingdom doth in silence lie  
A land forlorn and choked with quiet pain.

The Brothers noble look about with awe  
At this new place they never glimpsed before.  
Fear grips them for a moment but then-Ah!  
They set out on their dangerous task once more.

Not long they go before they are attacked  
By living mushrooms charging them with hate  
And with white fangs as sharp as broadswords act  
Our heroes lives to quick exterminate.

Goombas they were, and heartless traitors all  
Who willingly gave up their allegiance.  
To him most foul they each became a thrall  
And placed themselves at his Empire's defense.

With defiance the two brothers leap up  
The sun's gold rays bright shining in their boots.  
See muscled strength that no Goomba can stop.  
Each traitor flattened into the earth's roots.

Still more do come and still the fight goes on.  
Each shroom the victim of their righteous rage  
They battle fierce until the day is won  
And do not pause but fly to the next stage.

High cliffs they see like the pillars which hold  
The sheet of sky aloft above the world  
And 'neath, the ocean, blue and wide and old  
Into which golden riches had been hurled.

"My brother," says Weegie, "we must now part,"  
For this new realm is large and daunting wide  
So yours shall be the ocean and my part  
Shall be to scale each sheer and sharp cliff side.

The two embrace and say a grieved farewell  
Knowing that they might never meet again  
On this low earth where we small mortals dwell  
And so they on their fateful paths begin.


	3. Canto 3

Canto III

Now Mario sinks down beneath the waves  
And silently swims through the dismal dark.  
Here no light comes except for groaning caves  
Where unearthly creatures glimmer and spark.

Here in the water sheltered far from air  
Live creatures ghastly white and pale and sick  
Who hide away from day's detested glare  
And long for human flesh to bite and lick.

The sighing tears of all earth's weeping folk  
For centuries fell, and to this ocean came,  
Congealed together, then from their mass woke  
Hoards of vile squids, and Bloobers are their name.

In swarms they come at Mario with mind  
To strip his flesh from bones and eat their fill.  
Almost to late he sees their white forms wind  
Toward him hungering for a mighty kill.

As the mysterious Cheep-cheep that like wind  
Or lightning flits so quickly through the sea,  
Mario turns and swims around a bend  
Of coral pink to hide most urgently.

Like ravenous swarms of insects at a meal,  
And without pause, the Bloobers him pursue,  
But Mario, as agile as an eel  
Has hidden in a clump of sea kelp blue.

Enraged at the rude loss of such a taste  
Of most choice flesh, the Bloobers go insane.  
In mad frenzy they lay each other waste  
And gorge upon each other's pale membrane.

Long after Mario would never speak word  
Of that horror he saw beneath the sea,  
How those bleak animals themselves murdered  
In seething, roiling fight of savagery

He finds a pipe jutting out from a rock  
And slips inside to see what lies beyond.  
The pipe ends near a harbor with a dock.  
He swims to shore and steps out on the land.


	4. Canto 4

Canto IV

Elsewhere Luigi faces the high cliffs,  
Their tow'ring heights that mesmerize the eyes.  
His foes here are the near-bottomless rifts,  
And flying koopas, soldiers of the skies.

Here Bullet Bills do fierce the land patrol  
Those black, hard fighters made from tempered steel.  
No warmth of feeling animates their soul.  
No softness of the heart they ever feel.

Here cranes perilous hang from metal threads,  
A tattered ruin of once great bridges  
That soared majestic over people's heads,  
Now but the crudest wreck of devices.

The path is hard, the trail is endless long.  
Not Buzzy Beetles ripped out of their holes,  
Or P'ranha Plants yanked out and strewn along  
The ground know hopelessness like Weegie knows.

For one brief moment his spirit him fails  
The darkness of despair enshrouds his heart.  
And evil watchers eye him from low vales  
And steal upon him with deceitful art.

They crowd around him in a giant swarm  
More than he ever can fight back against.  
With leering eyes and great intent to harm.  
Against their vicious charge there's no defense.

Two hammer brothers who have thirst for fame  
Head the ambush, planning a hideous doom  
For this plumber whose newly-famous name  
Thrills their dark hearts with rewards soon to come.


	5. Canto 5

Canto V

Before the morning's first gray streak of dawn,  
While moonlight still paints silver pipes and trees,  
A messenger to Mario flies along,  
Whose taunting, hateful, sneering words are these:

"We have your brother trapped within our claws  
And if you ever wish him see again  
Surrender to our mighty turtle boss  
And swear your noble quest has been in vain."

But this Mario would never swear to.  
Without mercy he slays the koopa dead.  
And makes another promise, this one new.  
"I'll get Luigi back, and Bowser's head!"

Beneath the Mushroom Kingdom's sewer main  
There are ancient stone tunnels in the deep,  
Dank, sunless caverns measureless to man,  
And hither is the hammer brothers' keep.

He now descends into the dismal dark,  
And it grows inky black as death of night.  
And little can be sighted through the murk,  
And only fungal growth provides a light.

He finds Luigi captive as was told  
And starts a losing battle to save him.  
Glory destined to fade and grow cold  
Until doth a great miracle happen.

The chosen stars above that guide the fates  
And set the brothers' quest before their birth  
And guard the ope and shut of heaven's gates  
Have sent help to these two who have such worth.

Within a secret block that looks like brick  
A magic vine begins to grow and grow.  
Sturdy and strong it is, and green and thick  
And the brothers both instantly know

From some great inspiration from above  
That this was sent to aid them in their need.  
They break away from their foes and then move  
To grasp and quickly climb the magic weed.


	6. Canto 6

Canto VI

Once long ago in the most ancient times,  
Which now are lost in dim antiquity,  
Only recorded now in broken rhymes,  
A haven was made by divinity

Up high aloft above the fleecy clouds  
And filled with gold and painted white and red.  
A magic spell eternally enshrouds  
Coin Heaven, where the brothers have been led.

Revealed to them now is its majesty,  
Its Mushroom spires shade them from the sun.  
They look around with wonder and to see  
What magic being has this great deed done.

A face appears out of the golden mist,  
Small and round, and inspiring no awe.  
The face of Toad Kinopio I wist,  
Most loyal servant that men ever saw

To her, the princess who doth rule this land  
And he hath come to heal the brothers' wounds  
And point them to the stage of their last stand  
Where the fate of the kingdom and its bounds

Will be determined for once and for all.  
"I have a secret to show you," he said.  
And fed them magic mushrooms that men call  
A cure-all that could almost raise the dead.

With their weak strength revitalized again,  
The brothers quickly follow this Toad's lead.  
To a doorway he will not enter in.  
The fear in his face they can clearly read.

"This place is called Warp Zone, and it is where  
You two must venture if you truly want  
To risk your lives and be great heroes there  
Or else destroyed, then all will come to naught."

Their fear is gone. They hesitate no more.  
They know this is the fate set down for them.  
If nothing else, this is worth fighting for,  
And without looking back they enter in.


	7. Canto 7

Canto VII

A fortress of stone they see before them.  
A moat of lava girdles its gray walls.  
Spires as sharp as knives the courtyard hem.  
And burning the air, deadly molten falls.

A maddening maze they have now to face  
With unforgiving dangers round each bend  
And dangerous whips of fire on each wall's face  
Where any careless step could mean their end.

At each angle the darkness closes in  
Until it starts to steal their breath away,  
In this dark pit where unthinkable sin  
Has been committed every single day.

At the end of their hard and dangerous trek  
Past evil creatures quite unspeakable  
They face down Bowser who has at his beck  
Bodyguards that are near invincible.

At edge of death the brothers are when they  
Defeat the sentinels and get to him.  
No chance they see anymore. There's no way  
To escape from these circumstances grim.

Then Mario sees a chance however slight.  
He picks up a discarded war axe old  
And cuts the floor from under Bowser's feet,  
And sends him to his death with action bold.

With Bowser gone, the binding spell is broke.  
The princess, smiling, reaches out her hand.  
Her power flows, her magic is awoke.  
Life is restored once more to the dead land.

The evil castle crumbles down to dust.  
The sun arises as the world re-wakes.  
A magic, cleansing wind blows as it must  
To wash the earth of spiritual mistakes

Called koopas, and a new day is begun.  
Their names all generations hence will know  
For nobler deed has never since been done  
Than this great quest of Brothers Mario.

THE END


End file.
